Emeri
by Nyx Psyche
Summary: Meet Aerithe. Her twin sister decided that that they needed to move out so, on some scheme that she cooked up, Aerithe was forced out of her comfy place in her parents' home and into a town called Emeri. Read as she tries to keep her head in this town.


_Disclaimer: No, I don't own the idea of Animal Crossing or anything of the like. The game and its ideas are in possession of the Nintendo company and its staff._

_Prologue_

_The Beginning of it All_

"We can't live here forever!" I could remember my sister saying to me. "I think it's about time that we got out of here and took our own steps into the real world." And my reaction to those words remained the same. I snorted out loud. The train was practically empty from where I sat. A boar nodded off in her seat in the corner and a cat was currently in a small compartment I had yet to step foot in. Not that I cared. How had my sister convinced me to do this again? For all I cared, I could have lived with my parents for the rest of my life. It didn't bother me at all.

"Gee… Thanks a lot Aeith…" I murmured to myself. "Look at what you got me into… I'm low on cash, and far from home… There's no way I can even get home after this trip…" Needless to say, I wasn't in a good mood. I heard a door roll open and my gaze slipped to find the source of the noise. The cat had come out of the compartment. He looked around and I guess he noticed me staring since he started coming my way.

He introduced himself as Rover. I would've figured that to be a dog's name or something. He also asked if he could grab the seat across from me. In reality, I wanted to tell him to buzz off, but my manners kicked in and I just mumbled my consent. He sat down and began to yammer away about things I only half-listened to. Maybe I should've told him to go away. He also asked me questions that normally I wouldn't answer, but I figured if I did, he would shut up. What was my name? Aerithe. (My sister's name was a variant of mine since I was older… Even if it was only by a few minutes.) Where was I going? A little town called Emeri. Why was I going there? I kept it simple and said that I was moving out. Did I have a place to stay when I got there? …No. At that, his eyes got wide and asked if I was crazy. I just laughed on the inside. That was due to my sister's "oh-so-brilliant" plan on where to move to. We would each go to a bunch of towns, check them out, and then pick which one we liked best to move to… And look where that got me.

The cat started to ramble again. He said something about having a friend who owned a shop in Emeri. That he also had some houses he was willing to sell off. Before I could say anything to stop him, he was on his way back to the compartment that apparently had a phone in it. I wanted to slap myself. I guess my choice of where to live was about to made for me. After making a phone call, the cat came back. …Wasn't there a song or a book titled that or something? …Anyway, He said his friend was willing to part with one of the houses as long as I was willing to pay for it. I did have money right? I really wanted to slap both my sister for putting me in this situation, and myself for just going along with it when I said my answer. Just a little… The cat looked a little sad for me but apparently tried to cheer me up when he said something that didn't quite make sense but I still understood.

My stop came. The cat looked surprised that the ride didn't seem to last very long before we said our goodbyes. I hopped off the train and listened to the porter say the name of the town. Emeri. The town I was now pretty much forced to live in. I started to leave the small station when a raccoon rushed up to me. Turns out this was the friend the cat was talking about. The raccoon's name was Tom Nook. He laughed at me for moving somewhere without a place to stay first. Needless to say, I told him to not laugh.

After yapping more about things I didn't even bother listening to, he led me to where he held the houses. He told me to take a look at each of them, and pick the one that I liked. There were four of them, each the same small size, and each having the same cruddy wallpaper and flooring. I picked the one with the red roof. The insides of it were the most bearable. He seemed happy enough to be rid of the building and even threw in the radio and diary set inside it for free. (Actually, he just gave them to me because he couldn't sell them in his shop.) Then, oh the horror, he asked for payment for the house, a whopping 19,800 bells. I nearly fell over at the price. That much for this little thing?! Grumbling on the inside, I handed over what little bit of money I had… 1000 bells. This wasn't going to go well…

The raccoon started laughing at me again. I wanted to hit him. He then started talking about how people who don't have money can't buy a house… Like I didn't know that. Then, he came up with the idea that I would work at his shop to pay off the rest of my house. I sighed inwardly. Could things get any worse? Now I was forced to work at a place that I didn't even care for. The raccoon told me to drop by his shop later. It was in acre A-2… As if I knew where that was. Apparently, he could read my mind and told me that if I didn't know how to find it, look at the map in front of the train station. With that, he turned around, and left me to my own things.

Not quite knowing what to do, I stood there for a moment. I didn't want to go to the raccoon's place yet, but I still had no idea what this town was like. So, I headed up to the train station where the map was and checked it out. It turns out, there weren't many inhabitants of this town. I could name all six of them. Cheri lived in the area to the right of my house and Hector lived in the area to the left. Portia lived south of me. Then there were the people farther out. Buzz lived in D-2 (I understood the Acre thing by looking at the map), Bob lived in D-1, and Dora lived in E-4. I was curious about these people, so I left the map to go check things out.

My first stop was Cheri's place. She's a bear and even though I walked right up to her, in plain view, she thought I was a stalker or something. Despite that, however, she said that she hadn't made any new friends lately and that she figured that we could hang out. She introduced herself, and I did the same. What do you know? The first meeting went without a hitch. I left Cheri to go see Portia next.

Portia is a dog, and apparently, she has really sensitive hearing. All I had done was go up to her and say hello before she said that she could hear me perfectly well without having to raise my voice. I only rolled my eyes, and introduced myself with a lowered volume voice. She laughed and called my name childish. I wanted to hit her. (I don't think we'll be getting along in 

the future.) She said her name and then expected me to compliment her on how lovely it was. I did so hollowly. She must have been stupid or something because after that, she smiled at me and said that there may be hope for me yet… Whatever she meant by that. I quickly left her without a goodbye and headed for Hector's place.

Hector the chicken seemed nice enough. He greeted me cheerfully and knew my name right off the bat. He said that he knew someone had just moved into town. I wasn't surprised since he lives right next to my area. He introduced himself and declared us friends from this day forward. I had to agree. After Portia, I needed someone with good humor. After saying my goodbye, I headed of to the next person.

After getting lost for a little bit, I finally made it to Buzz's place. The first thing he says to me is that I'm wasting my time talking strangers. BUSY strangers. (If walking around in circles is what people called busy, Aeith would love it here. After all, it was all she did sometimes.) Buzz grumbled more about how I interrupted his oh-so-important work before he caught his tongue. He apologized for overreacting and said that he wasn't really busy at all. Then he said something about perhaps being destined to meet and that maybe we were supposed to be friends. (Yeah… Sure… And I'm a psychopathic monkey.) Finally, he gave me his name and let me go on my way.

Somehow, I stumbled into Dora's acre. She was sweet. She smiled at me and introduced herself. She asked if we could be friends, and I was only too happy to say yes. She was really happy that I agreed. We chatted for a little bit before I headed off to find the last person in this town.

Bob the cat was friendly too. (Don't ask how I missed his house even though he lives right next to Buzz. It just… Happened.) I introduced myself and he did the same. He said that if we ever ran into each other again, that I shouldn't be shy and should just start talking to him. Our conversation wasn't long. I had the feeling that unlike Buzz, Bob actually had things to do, so I quickly left.

I still didn't want to go to the raccoon's store so I explored a little more, trying to get a grasp of this place. I found the museum where a sleeping owl stood in the middle of nothing, the police station where Copper, a dog who was very made for his job in my opinion, and Booker, another dog who was not so made for his position, worked, the tailor shop where two hedgehogs, Mabel and Sabel, worked, and the wishing fountain. There, I met Tortimer. Right off the bat, he gazed at me with a hard, penetrating stare as he asked me this question: Who do I respect the most? In reality, I didn't really respect anyone. I just said the first person to come to mind: My grandpa. He seemed happy about this. When I told him my name, he too must have thought it odd judging by his reaction to it. He explained that he was the mayor of Emeri and that it was a big job. He told me that whenever there was a holiday or event going on to see him. He said that he might have some stuff for me if I do so I figured that I would. "Never turn down free stuff" as my mom always said.

After all that, I had nothing else to do other than to head to the raccoon's place. Oh, the horror. Having gotten to know the area, I made a beeline for the shop. Might as well get this over with. When I got there, I burst out laughing. His shop was nothing more than a little rundown hut! After composing myself, I went on inside, and the raccoon was waiting for me. He faked yelling at me because I didn't come to the shop right away before he shoved some clothes into my possession. It was to be my uniform. With an inward growl, I ran home to change.

The uniform fit perfectly. How had he known my sizes? I walked back to the shop to show him what he wanted. He said that I looked like I was born to wear the uniform. Ugh. I hope not. What a horrible fate if it were true. Immediately, he put me to work… Or he would have was I not carrying so much stuff. I had picked up a few things at the Lost and Found and shaken a few peaches down to eat in case I got hungry. I shrugged before I ate my peaches. Then, the work began.

First I was a gardener. Wonderful. I've become a slave for menial tasks. I planted the flowers that he wanted in no special way. I just planted wherever my feet stopped moving. After I was done, I went back inside the shop to receive my pay. 80 bells for my work. He said he'd keep them and put them towards my debt. After that, I turned into a delivery girl. I had to take some furniture to Bob. He told me not to lollygag along the way, but I did. I stopped by my house to change again. There was no way I was going to wear this uniform any longer than I had to.

It didn't take me long to get to Bob's house. I gave him the furniture that the raccoon said to bring him and he was curious as to why I was delivering stuff. I told him my predicament and he nodded his head in understanding. He was even nice enough to give me a piece of furniture to decorate my home with. I now consider Bob one of my good friends. He told me to see how it looked in my house, but not to skip work to do so. It's wasn't fun to get fired after all. We both agreed on that. We said our goodbyes before I headed back to the shop.

I knew I had forgotten something along the way back. The uniform. When I stepped into the shop, the raccoon practically had a heart attack. He yelled at me for changing out of my uniform and then complained about the "kids these days." He nearly went into a "when I was young…" story. Finally he figured that he needed a change and let me wear whatever I wanted as long as it didn't make the customers uncomfortable. Yay… After that event, he awarded me 230 bells for that delivery. The debt is going to take a while to pay off… He also gave me another task. Before he could say anymore, I complained that it's too hard get around without a map. He complained again about the "kids these days" and again, almost sprung into a "when I was young" story. Just how old is this raccoon anyway? Somewhat irritatedly, he gave me my map and sent me away with my next task. Write a letter to Cheri.

Basically, the letter was to advertise the shop. I just wrote whatever popped into my head on the paper I was given before I went off to mail it at the post office. I met Pelly there. She was nice enough. I mailed off my letter to Cheri and returned to the shop. The raccoon docked me on my pay for taking longer than he liked (even though it only took me about five 

minutes for that entire sequence) and gave me 130 bells… Yup. This debt's not going to be paid off for a LOOONNNNG time. Now the raccoon says that he hasn't gotten my next task ready yet and that I should go ask the animals if they need help. I wasn't as reluctant to help them as I was the raccoon so I left the shop without a word.

I started with Cheri. She wanted me to deliver clothes to Bob. Not a problem. I hurried off. When the task was done, Bob rewarded me with more furniture. Well, getting things to decorate with wasn't going to be too hard. Since I was there, I asked Bob if he needed me to do anything. He asked me to take a watch back to Hector's place. I obliged. Why not? I was starting to actually get rewarded for my efforts. Hector gave me clothes this time. I guess all the clothes in this town come in a one size fits all type thing since they fit me too. When I asked Hector for work, he wanted me to retrieve a camera for him from Cheri. Great… I've just gone in a huge circle.

I stopped by my house to drop a few things off and I realized how small my house actually was. The raccoon's shop was bigger! I grumbled under my breath as I left again to Cheri's. Turns out that Cheri doesn't have the camera. Dora does. I shook my head before I headed off to Dora's house. She gave the camera to me with an apologetic smile, as if she had been the one to take it from Hector in the first place. I bid adieu to Dora before I left to return the camera. Hector gave me stationary as thanks. Woo… Paper. Yay…

Two retrievals and two deliveries later, I found myself heading back to the raccoon's shop. The animals seemed to run out of tasks for me. When I talked to the raccoon again, I was back to being his delivery girl. Joy. I should've stuck to my tasks with the animals. With a big huff, I headed off to Dora's house to deliver her carpet. As a prize, I got a rug from her. Finally, something I could be happy about. Maybe now my house wouldn't look so bad. I ran off to try it out before I left for the shop again.

I earned 580 bells. Why so much suddenly? I have no idea. The next task was to deliver an axe to Cheri. I eyed the blade carefully before I put away. If my sister got her hands on one of these, I would fear for my life. The raccoon took how I stared at the bladed object the wrong way. He started explaining that it was wrapped and that I couldn't use it even if I wanted to. I growled lowly at his mistake. I think I scared him a little because he dispatched me quickly after that.

Cheri's already received my letter that I sent earlier. The mail really runs fast around here, doesn't it? She went on to explain how everyone is extremely clingy to their letters and love to show them off (Hence, showing the letter to me in the first place). When I returned to the shop, I earned 230 bells. By now, I think I've reduced my debt by at least 2,000… Nook also gave me my next assignment: Write another advertisement on the bulletin board in my acre. I was tired. Without saying much of anything, I turned on my heel, and walked out the door. Can't this day be over yet?

While I was writing the "advertisement," (You don't want to know what I really wrote up there…) I saw something rather odd. A present attached to a balloon. I stared at it as it floated by, thinking, "What the…? Why…?" Eventually, I just sighed and continued writing the "advertisement." This place was already weird in my mind. There was nothing more that could make my view of this little town any worse. When I was done, I ran back to the raccoon's place, I nearly wept tears of joy. I WAS DONE!

The raccoon said that all the work he had made me do were things he just hadn't gotten around to doing himself. "How wonderful for me, eh?" It was a rhetorical question, but I still stared at him with annoyance in response. After that, he said he had no more work for me, and that he was "afraid he would have to let me go." Don't get me wrong, I was happy to leave, but I had to know something. What about the rest of my debt?

"Hm? The rest of your mortgage?" He said after I asked him. "Oh, of course, you still have to pay ALL of it off! That's how life works!"

…What was I? An idiot? That's not what I wanted to know!

"Let me just have a look at my records here, hm?" He continued on. "Yes… So far, you've worked off a total of… 1,400 Bells… So you have 17,400 Bells left to pay! Not exactly a sum to sneeze at, hm?"

Only 1,400 Bells…? All that running around and I only earned 1,400 BELLS?! I wanted to strangle the raccoon until his fur changed color! He went on to explain that since there was no more work for me there, I'd have to figure out a way to pay my debt off on my own. (No duh. I'm no idiot, but it seems that the raccoon is!) He also suggested that I run more errands for the villagers to earn money. (Why not? They pay better than the raccoon does.) Also, I could sell things that I didn't need. (Again, IDIOT.) If I had stuff to sell, he said that I should come see him. (Where else was I going to take it? The dump doesn't yield any money, and I'm pretty sure the Animals in town wouldn't want any of my stuff considering they're the ones that probably gave it to me in the first place.)

He said to me that if I wanted to pay off some of my debt, I'd have to do it at the Post Office… For tax purposes, of course. (He's just last and he doesn't want to admit it!) He even set a goal for me. 1,000 Bells a week. He threatened to send the raccoon goons (Whoever they are…) after me if I didn't meet such goals. My glare must've scared him again, because he quickly laughed and said that he was joking.

"Once you pay it all off," The raccoon began. "We can talk about remodeling the place for you. That house you've got now is pretty small, after all, and I'm sure you'd like a little more room, yes?" That was an understatement.

As his parting words, he said thanks for my help and that he hopes I'll come to him for all my future shopping needs. (Where else am I going to go? He owns the ONLY shop in town!) 

When I was outside, I screamed happily and did a victory dance. Usually, my sister was the only type to do such things, but right now, I was just that happy to be free. It had been late afternoon when I first came here, but now, it was almost sundown. I walked home to my cramped little house, and began my first letter home. I had to let my mom know that I wasn't coming back this time, and that Emeri was where I was living now.

When I was done, I started another letter. This one was addressed to my sister Aeith. I bit my lip, wondering how to start this before I just let my pen go.

_Aeith, you little monster!_

_I AM GOING TO HURT YOU NEXT TIME I SEE YOU. Due to your little scheme, I am now forced to live in a little town called Emeri. Also, because of you, I'm now 17,000 Bells worth in debt. Can you tell how irritated I am with you now? Pushing those things aside, I believe you would feel quite at home here. The Animals here are all very kind, save one dog and perhaps a hawk, but the raccoon shopkeeper here is another matter. Anyway, I'm just writing to tell you that I've found a place to live. Please. Stay out of trouble. I'm not there to bail you out all the time now. It's late now, so I'm going to bed. Good luck on your life. I'll keep walking mine._

_Until we see each other again,  
Aerithe_

_(P.S. I have this odd feeling that the day we see each other again is oddly close. You're not planning something again, are you? Please… Spare me.)_

A/N: I was playing this as I wrote it out so, yes, just about everything written here happened as I played. What I did here was add a voice and thoughts (albeit the voice and thoughts very sarcastic and moody ones) to the character that you control. Like her? Don't like her? Well, when I get bored of this story, I'm going to add something to spice it up… But until then, expect to deal with Aerithe. lol Reviews are appreciated! Happy reading all!


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